Tribunal stress 'threatens Haughey'

By Daily Telegraph Correspondent

12:00AM BST 17 Oct 2000

DOCTORS for Charles Haughey, the former Irish prime minister, have warned him that the stress of giving evidence to an inquiry investigating corruption allegations against him will shorten his life expectancy.

The legal team representing Mr Haughey, who is thought to be suffering from prostate cancer, told Dublin's Moriarty tribunal yesterday that doctors had told him to stop giving evidence on medical grounds. Mr Justice Moriarty said he would seek to find alternative ways for Mr Haughey to answer questions about IR£8.5 million alleged payments he received.

Eoin McGonigal, senior counsel for Mr Haughey, said his client had been told by the consultant cancer specialist treating him that he would be unable to attend the tribunal as a witness, in public or in private, now or in the future.

Mr McGonigal said that Mr Haughey had until recently been in the witness box for two hours, three or four times a week, but any further stress would be likely to shorten his life expectancy. He added that he would welcome an independent examination.

Mr Justice Moriarty said that if "a weight of informed professional opinion" were to establish this was the case, then he would have to consider whether Mr Haughey could finish giving his evidence "in some different venue or by some alternative, albeit less satisfactory, procedure". He said he had a duty both to Mr Haughey and the Irish parliament when conducting the tribunal.

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The Moriarty tribunal, set up in 1997, is yet to investigate whether any political decision might have been made by Mr Haughey when in office which might have benefited a person or company who made him a payment.

Mr Haughey was the leader of the Fianna Fail party and in and out of government throughout the 1980s.